Brewing Storm
by qchastity
Summary: There's more than one way to tear a family apart, and a world on the verge of war provides ample opportunities to do so.
1. Chapter 1

**As you may already be aware, I don't own any rights to the **_**Harry Potter **_**franchise. Additionally, I should mention that this story was inspired by a gifset made by tumblr user quantumspork. It's really lovely and you should check it out. (You can find it tagged under "I make things," or I can send you the link.)**

It is Christmas Eve of 1968. London is a mass of bright lights and cheerful chaos as snow whirls through the dark, cold sky. At 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius and Regulus Black sit together in their pajamas, sipping cocoa and staring out the window at the carolers who cross the street below, never seeing the building that looms above them. Outside the city, at the sprawling country estate of the Black family, Sirius and Regulus' parents have just arrived at the family's annual Christmas ball. The boys, still too young to attend, look forward to the day when they can join the elegantly glittering festivity, mingling with the best of pureblood society just as their parents do.

At the ball, Andromeda Black is seated primly on a chair by the drinks table, watching the party rage around her. She sees Narcissa, a shy thirteen-year-old, dancing with that Malfoy boy from the year above her. There is something deeper hidden in that awkward adolescent embrace, some hint of romance yet to bud. And there, at the center of the floor, is Bella. Beautiful Bella, spinning across the room in the arms of Rodolphus Lestrange. Men are staring at her jealously, knowing that they can never have her, that she and Lestrange will be married in June, as soon as Bella finishes at Hogwarts. Andromeda's sisters are beautiful. She is, too, but not in the same way. Bellatrix is bold and grabs people's attention, while Narcissa's shyness is mistaken for refinement. They are unforgettable. Andromeda is quiet and often overlooked, stuck between two sisters who cannot be unnoticed. Her teachers know her, of course. There's no way they couldn't, with her stellar academic achievement. But Andromeda craves another type of attention, one that she is unaccustomed to receiving. Her infatuations, unlike those of her sisters, have amounted to nothing.

One boy has noticed Andromeda. Ted Tonks, who sits next to her in arithmancy, has noticed Andromeda, and she knows it. But he is a muggleborn, not worthy of her attentions or affections. She knows that to return his notice would sentence her to separation from her family, dishonor and disgrace.

As the ball swirls around her, Andromeda Black sits alone, unnoticed, wondering what the new year will bring.


	2. Chapter 2

**I still don't own any rights to the _Harry Potter_ franchise. I'll let you know if that changes. **

Three days after Christmas, Andromeda and Narcissa are with their mother in the informal sitting room, waiting for Bellatrix to come home. Because their father is out meeting with a business associate, one of the house elves will bring up a tray of sandwiches shortly, which they'll eat huddled around the roaring fire. The house is full of cold stone and wood, dark and chill on this wintry evening. As Narcissa shivers and curls up in her chair, the flames in the fireplace flare green, and Bellatrix steps out. She flashes a grin at her sisters as she drops into a chair. Her mother looks up, smiling. "How it, darling?" she asks her eldest.

"Oh, mother," Bellatrix sighs, "it was absolutely _wonderful_. Rodolphus took me to meet with some of his old school friends, they call themselves the Knights of Walpurgis."

"He took you to a political meeting? Hardly what I'd call romantic."

"Romance is boring, mother. Anyway, we were discussing the mudblood problem when this brilliant man, he called himself Lord Voldemort, started to speak."

"Voldemort?" Bellatrix's mother sounds slightly worried. "That's that Riddle boy, he was at school with Father and I. What did he have to say?"

"Well, we had been discussing the decline of society, how mudbloods and blood traitors are forgetting their place–"

"Too right, Narcissa was telling me just the other day that some scummy Ravenclaw kept flirting with Andromeda. Isn't that right, Cissy?"

Narcissa nods mutely. Bellatrix, ignoring the interruption, continues. "Yes, well, he was saying that the muggles were having the same problem, with the less desirable elements of their society trying to overthrow their betters. And of course, the muggles ignored it and now their society is collapsing into shambles, they've got these horrible things called _hippies_–"

Andromeda cuts in. "Are those the ones who don't bathe?"

"Yes, dear, as if muggles weren't filthy enough already. So as Lord Voldemort was saying, the muggles ignored the societal shift, and now they're ruled by unwashed freaks, and if we don't act quickly, the same could happen to us."

"Bella, be careful who you listen to," her mother cautions. "I knew Tom Riddle. He always seemed too extreme, and rather violent…"

"Yes!" Bellatrix cries jubilantly, "He's declared a need to fight _back_ against those undesirables! To decimate their population and destroy their wills and show them their place!"

"Bellatrix!" Her mother is horrified. "The point isn't to eliminate them, it's to keep them in their place!"

"But mother," Bellatrix protests, "the only way to keep them there is to show them how worthless and powerless they are! The Dark Lord can do that, and I intend to help him in his crusade."

Her mother takes a calming breath, looks down at her hands. "Tom Riddle is a fool, Bella." Ignoring Bellatrix's outraged gasp, she continues. "He's a fool, and you're not to get mixed up with his lot."

For the rest of the holidays, Andromeda and Narcissa feel as if they are caught in the middle of a hurricane. Bellatrix engages in frequent, hysterical shouting matches with her parents. Already enraged by her parents' reluctance to take actual violent action, Bellatrix's fury rises when she is told that it is not her place as a woman to become so involved in politics. At night, she hisses furiously to her younger sisters about her frustration at the expectation that she will sit quietly by Rodolphus' side while he decides their family's views. Andromeda knows that Bellatrix knows that Rodolphus will do whatever she says. He isn't a pushover, but Bellatrix is so stubborn and strong-willed that there is no conceivable way her opinion could go unheard, even if it's heard through the voice of Rodolphus. Bellatrix chooses to ignore this fact, stomping around the manor and scowling at her parents. She scribbles furious letters to Rodolphus and his like-minded friends and frequently warns her sisters that the only way that they'll have power, as purebloods and as women, is with the help of the Dark Lord.

Waiting to board the train and return to school, Andromeda and Narcissa are pulled into tight embraces by their mother. Bellatrix, on the other hand, refuses to be hugged. Instead, she shakes the hands of her parents, nods curtly to them, and sweeps into the train. Andromeda sees her a few minutes later, sitting alone a compartment, staring broodingly out the window as the station disappears in the distance.

In a compartment full of Narcissa's giggling friends, Andromeda breathes a sigh of relief. At Hogwarts, finally, she will have some respite from Bellatrix.


	3. Chapter 3

Although she appreciates the respite from Bellatrix's raging temper that Hogwarts provides, Andromeda quickly realizes how much her relationship with her sisters has changed. Before, they would often sit around the fire late into the night, their conversations flowing easily as the common room emptied around them. Although Bellatrix still spends her evenings in the common room, she has abandoned the comfortable couch she once shared with her sisters for a table in a dark corner of the room, which she huddles around with Rabastan Lestrange and his group. They speak in low, urgent tones. Andromeda has heard the rumors surrounding this group, and knows from their reputation that their conversations revolve around dark magic and the superiority of purebloods. She's seen how younger students from the other houses go out of their ways to avoid notice from Rabastan and his friends. As Lord Voldemort's influence grows, it's whispered in the halls of Hogwarts that this group of seventh years will join him soon.

Narcissa has also left the couch in favor of a table, although her intentions are quite different from Bellatrix's. She and Lucius Malfoy sit for hours with their heads bent over their books, trying to disguise their whispered conversations as studying. It isn't hard for onlookers to see what is really happening, to pick out the little hints of blossoming teenage love.

Andromeda is on perfectly sociable terms with the girls she shares a dormitory with, but has never really thought of any of them as friends. They are merely acquaintances, and her relationship with them pales in comparison to the deep connection that she has to her sisters. Now that Bellatrix and Narcissa are drifting away from her, Andromeda finds herself desperately lonely. The trivial conversations of her roommates quickly bore her, and she finds herself spending hours in the library. Although she initially studies alone, she quickly finds herself swallowed up into a group of Ravenclaws from her year. Without any conscious decision on her part, Andromeda begins to think of these Ravenclaws, some of whom aren't even half-bloods, as her friends.

Ted Tonks joins the group in the library, sometimes. Andromeda is attentive enough to keep her guard up around him, to be pleasant and polite without being friendly. Despite her best efforts, though, she slowly begins to see him as a friend, too.

Caught up in her study, Andromeda barely notices the weeks flying by. The melting of the last snow takes her by surprise, and before long she finds herself on the train again, headed home for Easter. Despite the palpable tension between Bellatrix and Mother, those two sunny spring weeks almost trick Andromeda into thinking that nothing has changed. She spends hours lying in the grass with her sisters, looking up at the brilliant blue sky, conversations flowing the way they used to. Bellatrix, who has spent the past several months storming angrily around the castle, is suddenly full of laughter and smiles again, teasing Narcissa about her infatuation with Lucius Malfoy and playing harmlessly amusing pranks on her younger cousins.

Too soon, the holidays are over. Andromeda hopes that this sudden shift in Bella's mood will last, although she knows it won't. Bella cheerfully dominates the conversation as they pull away from King's Cross, but her mood sours as the train races north. By the time they reach Hogsmeade, Bellatrix is glaring out of the window in sullen silence while Narcissa prattles on about her new dress robes.

Andromeda chooses to sit in a carriage without her sisters on the ride back to Hogwarts.


End file.
